894.00/1145
The Netherland Legation to the Department of State
The following facts about Japan:
- 1.)
- Tojo is Minister of War as well as of the Interior under which resorts [sic] national defense;
- 2.)
- One of his first acts was a clean-up of the Police in Tokyo;
- 3.)
- The choice of the other members of the cabinet who are not politically prominent is to be considered as a superfluous administrative complement of the cabinet;
seem to prove the truth of the following theory: that differences of opinion about foreign policy have not been the real reason for the resigning of the Konoye cabinet. This resignation, however, has been [Page 568] the immediate consequence of the attack on Minister Hiranuma. The attack on Hiranuma can be considered as part of a large plot to which belonged many of the so-called younger officers and leading men of the Police of Tokyo. The assailant was a member of a secret society, called “The Black Dragon”. Their aim was a government which would immediately start military action against Russia and the United States. The Prime Minister and his ministers realized that they were not the people to guarantee control of the younger officers and that only a military man of high authority could control the increasing revolutionary spirit. The new cabinet, nevertheless, is more or less a compromise. The Fascist element has almost found the realization of its desire, i. e. military dictatorship. One may have doubts as to whether they will accept Tojo as a stepping-stone towards the dictatorship they want. Any sign of rapprochement on the part of the democracies will give strength to the extremists because it will be explained as weakness on their part and as a proof that the extremists are right and that Japan can strike without danger. Therefore, the best guarantee against Japan’s entry into the war remains the undiminished maintenance of economic measures.